Tercero chapter! (Tercero is Spanish for "third") :D
Disclaimer: I own Sudaki, nothing else...
-Moon
Jet awoke early the next day to some strange fighting noises outside and below. He hopped up, grabbed his swords, and looked out the window. He met gazes with Longshot and Pipsqueak. The others were still awake.
Jet frowned at his other two comrades, as if to ask what's going on?
Longshot jerked his chin at the commotion underneath them.
Jet looked down and gasped.
Sudaki was being chased around by a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers.
Jet hurried out the door and disclosed himself in the shadows of the branches in a tree where he could get a better view of whatever was going on.
It looked like the soldiers of a careless general had managed to get away for some free time and decided to explore.
Apparently, they found the unfortunate Sudaki and were now chasing her around for fun.
Sudaki ran quickly away from the soldiers on her long legs, her face pinched in a frown.
One of the soldiers yelled "First one to catch the girl gets to take her!"
Sudaki's frown deepened.
Jet brightened. Maybe he would finally get a chance to capture this girl. He lept into the bushes underneath him and waited for Sudaki to come his way.
Sudaki had seen him leap into the bushes, but she wasn't sure if it was him or not. So, she kept on running away from the soldiers. Finally, she decided to run in the direction of whoever had lept into the bushes.
Sudaki ran by the bushes. Nothing happened.
Just as she turned a corner, very confused indeed, Jet's hand reached out and grabbed her. The soldiers, thinking she'd gone straight, kept running after a false trail. Sudaki dimly felt a hand clamped over her mouth as she knelt on the ground beside her rescuer, panting hard.
'Bastards,' she thought to herself as her legs shook and finally gave away. She groaned as her body impacted the ground; HARD. Her rescuer uncovered her mouth and gathered her into his arms. Sudaki opened her dazed eyes.
"Jet?"
Jet shushed her quickly and made back for his tree house. He heard the soldiers coming back, still some distance away, but Jet didn't want to take any chances, and tugged on the piece of fly string. Up he flew.
He lay the now-unconscious Sudaki on his bed, wondering why she was unconscious. It was then he realized that the poor girl had bruises and cuts all over her small body.
Jet growled under his throat. Thos soldiers had been toying with her. His guess was that the soldiers found her, toyed with her, then purposely let her go because they knew she was too weak to carry on very far.
Jet hated those soldiers with all his might. He pushed a strand of hair away from the girl's face and, closing and locking the door behind him, he went off for Smellerbee to assist him with the girl's wounds.
Later on, the girl's eyes began to open. Her long eye lashes fluttered a few times before she finally allowed a crack to open between her eyelids.
The first thing she realized was that she was in a very dim room. Two people were standing around her; one with puffy brown hair and dark-lined eyes, and another, taller one with a more shadowed face and puffier hair.
"Jet?"
Jet smiled a little. "Welcome back to earth."
Sudaki tried to sit up, but her muscles and bruises all hurt so much. "Where am I?"
"You're in my tree house room. You've been out for about two hours; maybe you should stay down for now."
Sudaki rolled her head to the side. "The soldiers...?"
"They're gone for now."
Sudaki picked up her arm and examined it. "Someone bandaged my wounds..."
Jet gestured to the silent girl standing by him. "That's thanks to Smellerbee; she was taught some medical knowledge before she joined my group."
Smellerbee smiled a little smile, trying somewhat to make the intruder feel welcome.
Sudaki frowned as she dropped her arm. "You realize that I am a Fire Nation outcast...?"
Jet nodded. "I don't care. Anyone who is an enemy of the Fire Nation is a friend of mine."
Sudaki fell silent.
Smellerbee finally spoke up in a quiet, sandy voice. "You should listen to Jet's advice; you have to stay in bed for, at the most, another day. You lost a lot of energy back there, being chased by the Fire Nation soldiers. Good thing their leader finally caught up with them."
Sudaki pricked up with fresh curiosity. "Who was their leader?"
Smellerbee shrugged. "Some lady with a Fire Nation insignia stuck on her bun."
Sudaki mentally sucked in her cheeks. "Did the lady have gold eyes? Black hair? Fancy armor? Cute but intimidating voice?"
Jet looked surprised. "Yeah... how did you know?"
Sudaki's eyes widened. "That was the Fire Princes Azula."
Sudaki's eyes suddenly turned sad. "She was my closest childhood friend, along with two other girls; Mai and Ty Lee. We went through so much together; We learned how to fight hand-to-hand combat, we learned how to use a bow and arrows, we nearly got drowned together in a nearby lake..."
A tear rolled down Sudaki's pale cheek. "The last time I saw her was right before my banishment. She and I knew it was going to happen, and she told me that she wished it would have never happened, but she couldn't get her father to change his mind. He took all of my inheritance, which was left to me by my Noble father, and left me in this forest. The last thing Azula told me was 'I promise to get your inheritance back'. I haven't seen her since."
Sudaki suddenly turned her head, an angry look burning like fire in her golden orbs. "And she was right underneath these very trees a few minutes ago! We were so close, but yet so far..."
Sudaki gazed up at the ceiling. Remembering her good old days with Azula, Mai and Ty Lee...
Jet looked at the young girl with much sympathy. Her father and brother were dead, she was kicked out of her own Nation for nothing she'd done, and she was forced to live by her wits at such a young age.
Jet decided to change the topic.
"Are you hungry?"
Sudaki turned her head back around slowly, a crazed look in her eyes. "Food..."
Jet and Smellerbee ran out of the room as fast as they could, leaving Sudaki's food behind in Jet's room. Meanwhile, Sudaki was enjoying herself...
A/N: Was it good? Heh, again, I like the ending best... :D
-Moon
